A Place to Hide
by Violet Wild
Summary: Written for the Slytherin Common Room Challenge. Sirius tries to sneak into the Gryffindor common room to see Harry, but when Remus almost sees him he's forced to hide in the Slytherin common room, where he finds Draco struggling to get some sleep.


_Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me._

_Description: Set in Harry's third year. Sirius tries to sneak into the Gryffindor dormitory to see Harry, but when he almost gets caught, he's forced to take a detour to the Slytherin common room. _

_A Place to Hide_

Sirius lowered down and hid behind several suits of armor, hoping and praying that he wouldn't be seen. Of course it had to be Remus who was patrolling the corridor in front of the Gryffindor common room; he was the only one who would recognize him in his dog form. Sirius lay down on the ground and rested his head on his front paws, hoping that the darkness would sufficiently conceal him. It took every last bit of what little restraint he had to keep from running out to Remus and explaining everything. What he wouldn't give to talk to Remus again, to laugh with him, to just be with his friend again…but he knew that couldn't happen yet. There were a few things he had to put in order first, starting with a certain rat that he knew was sleeping in the third year boys' dormitory. _Cowardly bastard_…how could he sleep at night, knowing what he did? Sirius suppressed a growl from deep within his throat. He couldn't afford to lose control and be reckless now, Wormtail would get what was coming to him all in good time, his own name would be cleared, and he would be free from that godforsaken place forever…

But first he needed to get inside the Gryffindor common room, he needed to get Wormtail out of the way, he needed to talk to Harry…

He felt a low whine build in his throat at the thought of Harry. He didn't know how much Harry knew…did he know that Sirius was his godfather? And if he did, did he know that Sirius was accused of betraying the Potters? Sirius shuddered with both anger and bitter sadness at the thought. Harry deserved to know the truth, and he deserved to get to take care of his best friend's kid, like he was supposed to. For the thousandth time, the injustice of the world filled Sirius with unbearable rage, and he knew exactly what he needed to do to relieve it. And he was so close, yet so far…what the hell was Remus doing there anyway? He knew security had been increased at Hogwarts, but had they really resorted to having teachers pace the corridors in the middle of the night?

After about ten minutes had gone by, Sirius was giving up on Remus leaving anytime soon, and was starting to plan an escape route. Even in his dog form, it wasn't a good idea to spend any more time in the castle than he absolutely had to, at least not without accomplishing what he came there to do. He was carefully scratching his side with his back leg, trying not to hit the suits of armor, when he heard someone coming up behind him. He was pleasantly surprised to see the large orange cat he'd befriended. The cat purred and rubbed up against his side, and Sirius nuzzled him in return. Sirius lifted his head off his paws and decided to get one last look at Remus before leaving.

Remus looked tired, even more so than usual. Was the full moon approaching? Remus rubbed his forehead for a moment, as though he had a splitting headache, before running his fingers through his already thinning hair. The temptation to go to his friend was stronger than ever. Sirius had never seen him look so…_dejected_, as though he didn't have a single thing in the world worth living for. The cat sensed that he was upset and purred and licked his cheek. Sirius sighed and lowered his head back onto his paws. He hated seeing Remus so sad and not being able to cheer him up.

He stretched, beginning to get uncomfortable from being in such a cramped space for so long. In the process, his tail banged against a spear. He cringed as he heard the crash echo through the silent, deserted hall. Remus jumped at the noise and frowned, hurrying down the corridor to investigate. _Crap! _Sirius quickly backed up, frantically looking for an escape route. There were teachers in almost every hall; he'd had a hard enough time getting all the way here in the first place. Where could he go? Even a teacher who didn't know that he was an animagus would certainly try to stop a huge black dog running loose in the castle, and if he was caught, it surely wouldn't be long before he was revealed.

As Sirius was contemplating the complexity of his dilemma, the cat meowed and streaked off down the hall in the opposite direction. Sirius had the feeling that the cat wanted him to follow him. Praying that the hall was too dark for a black dog to be seen, Sirius shot off behind him.

The cat managed to take him on enough twists and turns that no teachers spotted them, and eventually led him all the way past the dungeons. It took Sirius a moment to realize where he was- the corridor in front of the Slytherin common room. He'd been here a million times before, crouched down next to James waiting for an unsuspecting Snape to walk out so they could hex him.

Sirius sat down in the corridor, scratching another itch and hoping he didn't have fleas again. He was just about to relax when he heard footsteps approaching. Dammit, couldn't he ever catch a break? This time there was truly nowhere to go; the hall was a dead end. Maybe he could get into the Slytherin common room somehow. He couldn't risk transforming back into a human to try to guess at the password or convince the portrait to let him in; would the portrait let a dog in?

Sirius trotted up to the portrait, assuming his best "sweet, lovable, dog" look. The portrait of Salazar Slytherin himself did not notice him, however; Slytherin was absorbed in studying an ornate locket. Sirius whined and scratched the wall beside the portrait, but still Slytherin did not look up from the locket. He was tracing the engraved "S" on the locket with his white, bony fingers, as though he were caressing a lover's cheek. Sirius barked impatiently and Slytherin slowly diverted his gaze from the locket, as though he was reluctant to take his eyes off it. Slytherin sneered at him, but clearly didn't want to be disturbed any longer and swung open to grant Sirius entrance.

The portrait closed behind him with a tight click. Sirius glanced around the room, and a particularly comfortable looking couch caught his eye. The room was deserted, naturally, it was after midnight. Sirius was heading over to the couch when to his surprise, a kid who had been lying on the couch sat up. Sirius crouched down; he didn't know what the kid would do if he saw him. Hopefully he wasn't afraid of dogs…

The boy sighed and leaned back against the couch, looking down and biting his lip. Sirius frowned. What was wrong? Ever since he'd become a godfather thirteen years ago he'd found himself feeling a lot more sympathy for kids. Maybe there was a little paternal instinct in him after all. He smirked, wondering what his mother would have thought of that. As far as she was concerned, he was an evil freak of nature, and definitely shouldn't be trusted near anyone's children.

The kid glanced over in Sirius's direction, and Sirius got a better look at his face. Platinum blonde hair, grayish blue eyes, narrow face, about Harry's age. Huh…he looked kind of familiar, but Sirius couldn't place him. How would he know any thirteen year olds anyway?

Belly to the ground, Sirius crept closer. Where had he seen this kid before? It was starting to really bother him; he never forgot a face. The kid saw him and leaned over the back of the couch, frowning in surprise. Sirius saw that his right arm was in a sling.

As the boy studied him, Sirius lowered his head and whined, trying to show that he was a nice dog, that he meant no harm. He could only hope that the kid wouldn't wake anyone else up, or yell or anything. But to Sirius's surprise, the boy leaned further over the couch and reached out with his good hand, palm flat and facing up. He made a kissing noise meant to call a dog over, and said softly, "Here, boy".

Sirius hesitated. He didn't want to call any more attention to himself, and he definitely didn't want the kid to tell anyone else about him. But the kid looked eager to pet him, and Sirius longed for human contact. What harm could come from it, really? Sirius walked over and sat down next to the boy in front of the couch. The boy smiled and began to scratch his ears. _Oh man, that felt soooo good_…Sirius was in doggy heaven. Nothing could top having your ears scratched, except maybe your belly. Sirius rolled over and looked up at the kid hopefully. The boy chuckled and began to scratch his belly. _Oh yeah, right there_…this kid gave the best belly rubs ever. And it was nice to see him smile and laugh when he had looked so sad before. Sirius felt his back leg begin to kick uncontrollably. There was something familiar about that smile and laugh…

The kid's sling caught Sirius's eye; his friends had all signed it. There was one sentiment written in impossibly pink ink that caught his eye: _"Pansy loves Draco"_. There was a heart with an apostrophe and an "s" behind it where the word "loves" should have been. So the kid's name was Draco…_oh! _Wasn't that what his cousin Narcissa named her baby?

Sirius studied the boy's face and decided that yes, this was definitely Narcissa's baby. Except he wasn't a baby anymore; if Harry had grown up, that meant Draco had too. Sirius rolled off his belly and sat back up. So much had changed in twelve years…it was a sobering thought that he didn't even recognize people he'd known before he was sent to Azkaban.

So since Narcissa was his cousin, that made her kid what, his nephew? Or second cousin…? Well, whatever. Sirius wondered if Draco knew Harry, they were in the same year after all. Maybe they were even friends…Sirius looked for Harry's signature on Draco's sling, but couldn't find it. Damn. He was desperate to know more about his godson. Sirius was disappointed, but he decided that it couldn't hurt to get to know his nephew (or cousin, whoever, Sirius wasn't sure how that worked) for now.

Sirius nuzzled his head against Draco's hand, and Draco stroked his ears. His touch was surprisingly gentle for someone who had inherited half of Lucius Malfoy's genes. Sirius had to wonder how much like Lucius this kid was; but based on the smile and the touch, he thought it was a safe bet that Draco was more like Narcissa. He'd always been alright with Narcissa, even though he'd never gotten to know her very well. Andromeda had always been his favorite; she was seven years their senior, but she always took the time to play with him and Regulus whenever the family was visiting.

Draco gently petted Sirius's neck. "You don't have a collar", he observed. "I wonder who you belong to." The kid smirked in a way that was a little too reminiscent of Lucius. "Although, judging by the state of your fur, it looks like you're a stray." His sympathetic tone negated his smirk; he was back to reminding Sirius of Narcissa.

Sirius put his head on Draco's knee, thoroughly enjoying the petting. "I would keep you, but my dad doesn't like dogs. And neither does Pansy…my friend Daphne and her sister Astoria like dogs, maybe they could take care of you." He paused, deep in thought. He didn't want the dog to be a stray; he deserved a home.

"I know that great oaf Hagrid who thinks he can teach Care of Magical Creatures likes dogs; he has the biggest, ugliest dog I've ever seen. Maybe if he took you in, you could keep hippogriffs from attacking people in classes."

Sirius didn't appreciate the way he was talking about Hagrid, but he had to admit, having hippogriffs in a class of third years didn't exactly exude common sense. What teenage boy could resist taunting a hippogriff just to see how much it took for the hippogriff to attack? Although in Hagrid's defense, it didn't look like genius over here had had the sense to get out of the way quickly enough, based on his arm.

Draco continued to scratch his ears. "I wonder how you got in here. Can dementors sense animals as well as people?" he wondered aloud.

"I guess they can't. I wish they _couldn't _sense people; I'd rather have Sirius Black get in here than ever have to run into a dementor again. I think he may be related to me anyway, my mum's maiden name was Black."

If Sirius had been in his human form, he would have rolled his eyes; the irony of being talked to about Sirius Black was killing him.

Draco bit his lip again and looked troubled; Sirius surprised himself by nuzzling Draco again. He wished more than anything that it was Harry who was petting him, but Sirius longed so badly to take care of Harry that he was willing to substitute Draco for Harry.

Draco let out a shaky breath and murmured, "I ran into the dementors today. It was all Ted's fault, really, ever since Dumbledore said at the beginning of the year not to give the dementors any reason to harm you, he was determined to find out just how much 'reason' you had to give them." Draco gave a derisive snort. "Besides, he thought girls would think he was cool if he could say that he fought off dementors."

Hadn't Dumbledore learned anything? Especially after he had been his and James's headmaster. Didn't he know that if you told kids not to do something it just made them want to do it?

"Anyway, so we all snuck out of the castle and decided to get as close to a dementor as we could without getting our"- he shuddered- "souls sucked out."

"We were all sneaking up behind one, waiting for it to turn around, when Greg and Vince got spooked and ran back. Big cowards. So it was just me and Ted. Blaise was smart enough to have the flu this week, so he got out of going."

"Well, of course the dementor sensed that we were there and turned around, and that was when it hit us both that neither of knew the spell to repel dementors. So then we started freaking out. Ted managed to get out of the way and yelled me for me to come with him, and I guess he thought I was following him because he started running back."

Draco's hand was beginning to shake slightly as petted Sirius. "But it was like I was stuck or something, I couldn't move. And it was like, I don't know, like I wasn't there anymore or something, and" Draco's voice was beginning to shake "all I could hear was…" his voice broke and he shook his head. Sirius gently licked his hand. He understood what that was like, to be forced to relive your worst memories and feel like you were drowning in them, like you were sinking deeper and deeper and could never swim to the surface again. But what was Draco's worst memory?

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about it", Draco said softly. "That's why I came down here, because I couldn't sleep."

Sirius put his paw over Draco's hand, and Draco smiled a little. He patted him on the head and yawned. "I'm getting pretty tired though, and it's Wednesday, I've got classes tomorrow morning. I guess I should try to get some sleep." Sirius rubbed his head against Draco's head. Draco laid down on the couch and continued to pet Sirius until he fell asleep.

Sirius was almost beginning to nod off too. He'd forgotten just how good it felt to be near another person, to have them touch you, talk to you. He had originally come to the Slytherin common room to seek refuge from people who would turn him in to the dementors, but he had stayed because of Draco. Funny that it was his cousin's Narcissa's kid who'd showed him human compassion and kindness for the first time in years.

Now that Draco was asleep, Sirius was left to his thoughts. As nice as it had been to hang out with his nephew for a little bit, it didn't fill the hole that James's death had left in his heart. Only Harry could do that now. Harry was thirteen now, he was old enough to be a friend, right? It's not like he was a little kid or anything. Sirius thought about all the things they could do together once his name was cleared…they could go for drinks in the Three Broomsticks, they could play Quidditch, they could hang out in Madam Malkin's and check out girls trying on dress robes…fun stuff, like what he and James used to do.

Sirius glanced up at Draco, who was snoring slightly. He reluctantly got up. It had to be near sunrise, and he had a limited amount of time to get out of the castle. He would try to get into Gryffindor common room another night. But at least now he knew that if he couldn't get in there to see Harry, he could get in here to see Draco.

_Author's Note: JK Rowling once said that Sirius was a case of "arrested development", and that he was looking for a friend where Harry was looking for a father figure, so I tried to incorporate that a little. I know that Draco was a little out of character, and that no one tells their troubles to a random dog, but hopefully it wasn't too unrealistic. Hope you enjoyed it, and please review!_


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